Rutherglen man Jason Sweeney writes and directs new play

Greenhill Court man Jason has penned a play called Ena Afore The Wilderness

Jason Sweeney, who's from Greenhill Court, is the writer and director on Ena Afore The Wilderness,

A Rutherglen man is set to bring his own play to Glasgow audiences.

Jason Sweeney, who’s from Greenhill Court and now lives in Dennistoun, is the writer and director on Ena Afore The Wilderness, which will have a three night run at the Old Hairdressers on Renfield Lane from April 28 to April 30.

It focuses on Glasgow playwright Ena Lamont Stewart, who wrote the play Men Should Weep in 1947.

Before
penning that tale, though, Ena and her husband Jack were involved with MSU Rep Theatre, a precursor of Rutherglen Rep, while she also had to face a host of class and gender issues that were prominent in Scottish theatre at that time.

All those factors appealed to Jason, who works as a drama teacher.

Although he started writing the tale as a one-act play, Jason soon found himself with a much larger tale developing.

He
said: “This is the first thing I’ve written that I’ve taken to this stage, although I’ve tried my hand at writing a few screenplays in the past, and I’ve been involved in a few other things, like music videos.

“
I knew of Men Should Weep because it’s on the Scottish national curriculum (for drama) and I’d heard that Ena had written the play in two days.

“I was interested in that, and the more I investigated it the more it seemed that it would suit a play.”

Jason’s
research saw him discover more about Ena’s life at the time, as well as
the life of James Bridie, the co-founder of the Citizens Theatre and a huge figure in Scottish theatre.

He added: “There were a lot of difficulties she faced at the time, being a woman in the arts scene in Scotland.

“James
Bridie was quite misogynistic and also quite elitist as to what theatre in Scotland should be - he very much felt that theatre should have these imperialistic values, and there was a clash between that type
of thinking and what Ena and others were suggesting, which was that theatre should be for everyone, and that people in the East End or the Gorbals shouldn’t be excluded.

“So the play ended up not just being about class issues but also quite feminist too.”

Jason thinks there’s still parallels between what happened back then and the state of Scottish theatre nowadays.

He
added: “I have a tendency to get disillusioned by how some theatre now portrays certain accents or certain areas, it can be unrealistic.

“I’ve always been keen to write something that’s realistic and that people can relate to.”

Jason’s written and directed the play himself, but has also been involved in financing the production himself.

But he’s not been overwhelmed by the task yet.

He said: “I set up my own record label about five years ago, and this was quite similar to that in a lot of ways.

“The main difficulty was finding a cast, and getting them to share the same passion for the play.

“Once we got a really strong cast in place everything was fine.

“At the moment I’m feeling quite fearless about how it’ll all go, but that will change on the opening night!”

Tickets for the play are priced at £10 and are available from www.wegottickets.com.

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